The photography project: WOOD/IRON

6 Apr 2010

To represent the Mediterranean by observing a small area of the sea and the Sicilian coast: the tonnara of Bonagia, an ancient tuna fish factory near Trapani.

The boats of the mattanza, the anchors, the iron tools, and the timber worn by sun and salt are visualized as archetypes of the past, present, and future.

From time immemorial the sea, fishing, and sailing have joined and related the countries of the Mediterranean. The unintentional design of the masters of the adze has represented the wisdom and the culture of "doing" and the knowledge of work.

Furthermore, the history and the peoples of the Mediterranean basin have in a certain sense been united by tuna fishing which created a multicultural and magical reality. The fishing tools, the rites, the customs and symbolism that derive from it, all are an expression of the trades, the exchanges, the migrations from one land to another, and the cities and towns of these countries.

The future of the Mediterranean is inconceivable without an elaboration and transformation of its past together with the cultural and "factual" transmission among its peoples. Observing simple pieces of wood and anchors dozing off on a windy shore in a winter afternoon, one can feel the life and the flavour of what once was and of what changes with the passing of time.